New York Public Library's Books of the Century

Her father's death has left Jane Withersteen in possession of the richest
land holding in the Cottonwoods, a Mormon village on the 1871 Utah frontier.
Most importantly, Amber Spring runs through her property and so she controls
the water supply that makes possible the rolling fields of purple sage.
But now the Mormon church wants to gain contol of the spring by forcing
an unwilling Jane to marry Elder Tull. They've been steadily increasing
the pressure on her and as the novel opens, Tull and his henchmen have
come to arrest Venters, the Gentile foreman on her ranch. Outnumbered
and outgunned, Jane prays for deliverance. Just as Tull is about
to whip Venters, a rider in black appears--Lassiter, the scourge of the
Mormons.

Lassiter is an archetype of the mythic Western hero. In him we
see the origins of both Shane
and Ethan Edwards (from The
Searchers, Amos in the novel)--a lone gunmen fighting for Justice,
he has descended upon Mormon Utah with a vengeance, obsessively searching
for the sister who was kidnapped by a Mormon proselytizer.

Jane takes him on as a ranch hand, but makes him swear to forsake violence.
Inevitably (as in High Noon), events force her to release him from
his oath.

Despite an extremely harsh view of Mormons, this is one of the truly
great Westerns; a must read.